Heathrow charges £50 to fast-track immigration

Around 90,000 British passengers a year already avoid immigration queues at Heathrow by undergoing an IRIS test

Passengers returning from overseas to Heathrow will be able to pay to jump the immigration queue under a new fast-track system.

A trial is to be introduced next year at the airport's Terminal 4 that will allow travellers without biometric passports to pay to use automated gates.

A charge, reportedly up to £50, would be imposed, though the Home Office stressed today that the size of the fee had yet to be decided.

It is the latest add-on charge to increase the cost of travelling. Luton airport already allows passengers to jump the security queue if they pay extra, while British Airways will introduce charges on Wednesday for passengers to choose their seats.

Now BAA, Heathrow's owner and Britain's largest airport operator, is preparing a scheme with the UK Border Agency that would introduce new automated barriers for immigration checks. At present, three UK airports have biometric gates — Stansted, Bristol and Manchester — with the facility expected to be rolled out to seven other terminals.

Around 90,000 British passengers a year already avoid immigration queues at Heathrow by undergoing an IRIS test — which matches their eyes against information on a database — while presenting their biometric passport.

Biometric passports, which contain a computer chip storing details about the holder's face — such as the distances between eyes, nose, mouth and ears —have been used in the UK since March 2006 and are now issued as standard when passports are reissued. Some 19.7 million UK travellers now have biometric passports.

The new proposal would allow the 28 million Britons who hold old-style passports to register to use automated gates at Terminal 4.

Under a system called "automated clearance system plus" (ACS+), they would pay to "enrol" at Heathrow, with data about their facial features being stored on computer and matched to their passport number.

They would then be able to pass quickly through the automated gates on their return to the UK rather than being forced to queue to have their passports checked manually which can take up to 45 minutes.